The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring Jeremy Skillington, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma has just been released. Listen here.
AstraZeneca dropped as rival Pfizer announced that it would let generic drug makers produce cheap versions of its new Covid-19 pill for lower income nations. Shares in AstraZeneca fell by 366p to 8,602p.
Shares jump 5% on the news.
https://seekingalpha.com/news/3769919-johnson-johnson-stock-jumps-on-report-it-will-split-into-two-public-companies?utm_campaign=rta-stock-news&utm_content=link-1&utm_medium=email&utm_source=seeking_alpha&utm_term=RTA+News+Smart
The company posted a positive return in the year, though opportunities were curtailed by an agreement with the UK Government to avoid investment in vaccine producers while Kate Bingham worked as Chair of the Vaccine Taskforce (this restriction is due to be lifted at the end of December 2021). Excluding these stocks from the benchmark index would have seen the portfolio outperform. The team retain a favourable outlook, citing a strong pace of innovation and demographic drivers to growth alongside a relatively stable benign regulatory environment. As face-to-face meetings resume and valuations of smaller companies in the sector have corrected to lower levels, the team anticipate a resurgence in mergers and acquisitions, with larger companies having strong balance sheets and needing to replenish development pipelines.
IBT shares closed yesterday on a c. 5% discount to net asset value and a 3.9% historic dividend yield. Ongoing charges were 1.2% in the year excluding performance fees or 1.3% including this charge; the Key Information Document impact on return figure equates to 1.67%.
Highlights from the report:
The company has posted a net asset value (NAV) total return of 9.8%, lagging the 22.8% return from the NASDAQ Biotechnology Index. The share price return was 3.8% as the discount to NAV widened.
Underperformance is attributed to a lack of exposure to vaccine producing companies under an agreement between the manager and the UK Government when lead portfolio manager Kate Bingham was working as the Chair of the Vaccine Taskforce. This restriction is due to be lifted at the end of December 2021.
Moderna, one of two companies to develop an mRNA vaccine for COVID-19, became the largest biotech company in the world as its share price rose by c. 500%, contributing 12.3% of the 22.8% index return. If vaccine contributions were altogether excluded from benchmark returns, the index would have posted an 8.2% gain, below that posted by the fund.
The quoted portfolio, accounting for 91% of NAV, returned 11.2% in the year whilst the unquoted portfolio returned 23.9%, driven by holdings in the SV Fund VI.
Immunomedics was the largest single contributor to NAV following its acquisition by Gilead after positive data and FDA approval of its lead asset, Trodelvy, a therapy for the treatment of advanced breast cancer. Other material contributors included Biohaven Pharmaceutical, and Horizon Therapeutics.
AstraZeneca's growth outlook is the best in its sector and was not yet reflected in its share price, analysts at JP Morgan said following a 'deep dive' into the drug maker's financials. Hence their decision to keep the shares as their 'top pick' in the sector.
In local currency terms, the broker estimated that the company's core earnings per share were set to grow by 33%, 27% and 23% between 2021-23 - excluding its Covid-19 vaccine.
Subsequently, EPS was seen growing at a compound annual rate of growth of 9% over 2023-26.
Furthermore, Astra was only trading on 14.5 times' its estimated core EPS for 2023, against its sector trading on 16.5.
Yet the expected rate of growth in the drugmaker's core EPS across 2023-26 in compound annual terms was expected to be four percentage points higher thanks to its comparatively young on-market portfolio and deep late stage pipeline.
"Given our forecast for a strong growth outlook, and the compelling valuation, we remain Overweight, with Astra remaining a top pick in the sector."
AstraZeneca invests in Imperial's self-amplifying RNA technology with eye on future drugs
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/astrazeneca-invests-imperials-self-amplifying-060212916.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall
AstraZeneca said on Tuesday that it is planning on establishing a next-generation active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing facility for small molecules near Dublin, Ireland to secure its global supply network.
The FTSE 100 pharmaceuticals giant said the new plant would allow for late-stage development and early commercial supply, adopting "state-of-the-art" process technology and digital innovation designed to meet the needs of the company's new medicines pipeline.
It said the $360m planned investment at the Alexion Campus in College Park, Dublin was expected to create about 100 highly-skilled direct jobs, including scientists and engineers, and further indirect jobs.
The project, which AstraZeneca said would provide a boost to the local economy and to the country's life-sciences sector, was developed with the support and collaboration of the Republic of Ireland's investment agency, IDA Ireland.
"This is a tremendously proud moment for us all at AstraZeneca and I am delighted that we are bringing this very significant investment to Dublin which, with the support of the IDA, will create highly skilled jobs, nurture the country's dynamic life sciences sector and allow for the development of high value-added medicines," said chief executive officer Pascal Soriot.
The investment programme was expected to "significantly reduce" commercialisation lead times, costs and introduce more sustainable manufacturing processes, contributing to the company's 'Ambition Zero Carbon' programme.
It said the "future proof" design of the plant would permit the addition of capability to manufacture a range of medicines, including new modalities such as antibody drug conjugates and oligonucleotides.
"The future manufacturing of APIs for our medicines includes compounds with highly complex synthesis, requiring next generation technologies and capabilities that can respond quickly and nimbly to rapidly-changing clinical and commercial needs," said Pam Cheng, executive vice-president of global operations and IT.
"This significant investment will ensure the AstraZeneca supply network is fit for the future."
AstraZeneca said on Thursday that positive high-level results from the 'FoCus' phase 3 trial in Wilson disease showed 'ALXN1840' met the primary endpoint, with a statistically significant improvement in daily mean copper mobilisation from tissues, demonstrating superiority compared with standard-of-care treatments. At the same time, the FTSE 100 drugmaker said 'Forxiga', or dapagliflozin, has been approved in Japan for the treatment of chronic kidney disease in adults with and without type-2 diabetes. On the ALXN1840 trial, the primary endpoint gauged the daily mean area under the effect curve for directly-measured non-ceruloplasmin-bound copper (dNCC) over 48 weeks. That "novel measure" assessed the daily mean copper mobilised from tissues, reflecting the underlying burden of the copper accumulation, the company explained. It described Wilson disease as a rare and progressive genetic condition, in which the body's pathway for removing excess copper is compromised. Damage from toxic copper build-up in tissues and organs leads to liver disease, psychiatric, and neurological symptoms. ALXN1840, a potential new once-daily, oral medicine, demonstrated about three times greater copper mobilisation than standard-of-care. The trial enrolled 214 patients, including treatment-naive participants and those who had been on standard-of-care therapy for an average of 10 or more years. Additional analyses, including individual patient-reported outcomes and clinician-reported functional assessments, were ongoing, and would be presented at an upcoming medical meeting. "Where existing treatments remove copper from the blood, these 48-week phase 3 results demonstrate ALXN1840's significant impact in mobilising copper from tissues," said Marc Dunoyer, chief executive officer of AstraZeneca's rare diseases division Alexion. "As we advance this first innovation in Wilson disease treatment in more than 30 years, we will continue to follow these patients long term to further assess clinical impact on disease symptoms. "We look forward to learning more about how we can evolve the treatment of this progressive and devastating disease." On the approval of Forxiga by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), AstraZeneca said it was based on positive results from the 'DAPA-CKD' phase 3 trial. The decision followed the priority review designation granted by the MHLW earlier in the year. AstraZeneca described chronic kidney disease as a "serious, progressive condition" defined by decreased kidney function, often associated with an increased risk of heart disease or stroke. The condition affects 840 million people worldwide, but diagnosis rates remained low, and up to 90% of patients were unaware they had the disease. Forxiga is the first ever approved medicine for the treatment of the disease in Japan. "This approval is an important step towards realising our ambition of improving outcomes for patients with chronic kidney disease," said executive v
The problems of BT can be traced back to the Tax raid on pension fund in 1997 by Gordon Brown
His actions created the enormous black-hole of underfunding in the BT defined benefit pension scheme. BT has never recovered from that raid.
JFTR I still have a small holding of the shares.
My broker has a range of educational videos that anyone can access.
They are not promotional in that they do not promote the services of the broker but rather explore investing principals and concepts. You may find some of them useful.
The web link is : https://www.killik.com/explains/
The Rule is just one of those useful mental arithmetics short-cut. The number 72 is just chasen because it works,
The Rule of 72 is a simplified formula that calculates how long it'll take for an investment to double in value, based on its rate of return.
It applies to compounded interest rates and is reasonably accurate for interest rates that fall in the range of 6% and 10%.
The Rule of 72 can be applied to anything that increases exponentially, such as GDP or inflation; it can also indicate the long-term effect of annual fees on an investment's growth.
You probable all know this already but I'll post it never the less:
Remember the "rule of 72".
That is if you divide 72 by the compound growth rate it gives you the number of years for the capital to double.
CureVac (NASDAQ:CVAC) and GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) announce preclinical data investigating immune responses as well as the protective efficacy of CureVac's first-generation vaccine candidate, CVnCoV, and second-generation vaccine candidate, CV2CoV, against SARS-CoV-2 challenge in non-human primates.
CVAC shares rise 9.7% premarket to $64.50.
The study assessed cynomolgus macaques vaccinated with 12µg of either the first or second-generation vaccine candidate.
Better activation of innate and adaptive immune responses was achieved with CV2CoV, resulting in faster response onset, higher titers of antibodies and stronger memory B and T cell activation as compared to CVnCoV.
Higher antibody neutralizing capacity was observed with CV2CoV across all selected variants, including the Beta, Delta and Lambda.
During challenge with the original SARS-CoV-2 virus, animals vaccinated with CV2CoV were found to be better protected based on highly effective clearance of the virus in the lungs and nasal passages.
The CureVac-GSK COVID-19 collaboration announced in February 2021 extends the existing strategic partnership started in July 2020, which focuses on the development of new products based on CVAC's second-generation mRNA technology for different targets in the field of infectious diseases.